Oct. 13--Construction crews are expected to finish pouring concrete on the runways at Owens-boro-Daviess County Regional Airport this morning.

And the airport is scheduled to reopen for service Monday morning.

It's been closed since Monday, while a concrete overlay is being completed at the intersection of the north-south and east-west runways.

Bob Gilles, airport board chairman, said Friday that although work will be completed by Monday on expanding the north-south runway from 6,500 feet to 8,000, the longer runway won't actually be open until sometime next year.

But the airport will still celebrate the completion of the work with an open house and ribbon cutting on Nov. 28, he said.

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis have said they will attend, Gilles said.

"We still have to move some power lines to the south and relocate the instrument landing system before it's open," he said.

Commercial air service is scheduled to resume Nov. 18, when Montana-based Big Sky Airlines begins carrying passengers from Owensboro to connect with Delta flights out of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

The city has been without commercial air service since the Federal Aviation Administration grounded RegionsAir on March 8.

Delta announced last week that the new flights will leave Owensboro at 6:15 a.m. CST Monday through Saturday and arrive in Cincinnati at 8:10 a.m. EST. On Sundays, they'll leave at 6:30 a.m. and arrive in Cincinnati at 8:25 a.m.

The return flights will leave Cincinnati at 8:35 p.m. each day and arrive in Owensboro at 8:30 p.m.

Gilles said a second daily flight will be added in December and a third in January.

Last January, the U.S. Department of Transportation's office of aviation analysis reported that Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International was the nation's most expensive major airport to fly to or from.

The average round-trip ticket through Cincinnati cost $570 last year, the report said.

But Gilles said Delta has lowered the cost of flights to the West Coast, Hawaii and Florida from Cincinnati by 20 percent.

Ticket prices out of Owensboro are supposed to be competitive with those on Delta from Evansville, he said.

But a check on Delta.com Friday showed a round-trip flight from Owensboro to Los Angeles leaving Nov. 19 and returning Nov. 26 will cost $989.99. It will also stop in Denver on its way from Cincinnati to Los Angeles.

A round-trip flight from Evansville through Cincinnati to Los Angeles on the same dates would cost $574.50, the site says. And it would be nonstop from Cincinnati to Los Angeles.

Owensboro to Orlando, Fla., on the same dates is listed as $927.49 with a stop in Lexington.

Evansville to Orlando through Cincinnati would be $390.50 with a nonstop flight from Cincinnati to Orlando, the site says.

From Owensboro to New York City's LaGuardia airport on the same dates, Delta.com lists the fare at $565.01 with a stop in Columbus, Ohio.

From Evansville, the cheapest flight through Cincinnati to LaGuardia is $302.50 -- nonstop.

To see more of the Messenger-Inquirer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.messenger-inquirer.com. Copyright (c) 2007, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.